Barney Frank Ate Pot Brownie, Got Sleepy

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said he's not a regular pot smoker, but he did eat a pot brownie once. And it made him sleepy.

Frank, an ardent supporter of marijuana legalization, told CNN on Wednesday night that the only thing he smokes is a cigar or two a day.

"No, I don't," he said when asked if he regularly smokes weed. "I did have a brownie once. It made me sleepy."

Frank, who is retiring this year after more than 30 years in Congress, said the issue for him is personal freedom. He called the ban on marijuana "a great hypocrisy" given that cigarettes and alcohol are both legal and taxed. In the meantime, he said, states are spending too much money prosecuting and jailing people for smoking pot.

"Instead of this being a drain on our resources, we could tax it like anything else and use it as a contribution to revenues," he said.

Frank also dismissed the argument that marijuana should remain illegal because it is a gateway to harder drugs.

"If we follow that logic, I guess we'd have to outlaw cigarette smoking," he said.

The Hill first flagged the story early Thursday.